Escher's World of Wonder

There was a period of time when his optical illusion artworks were shared by many on Facebook. Most of us would have been fascinated by his drawings but may not know the artist behind those images. Scroll down below and you would find some familiar art pieces. The man who drew them was Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898 - 1972). To showcase his many amazing creations, ArtScience Museum has put together an exhibition: Journey to Infinity: Escher’s World of Wonder.


Early Works: Art Nouveau and Nature


Significant moments in the life of Escher


Visitors gathering around to admire Escher's early works


A closer look at some of his drawings


Escher's landscape drawings


Lithograph (1931) of Atrani (Coast of Amalfi) - the place he met his wife


Tessellation
Escher made used of repeated geometrical shapes to create tessellation prints.


Regular Division of the Plane with Birds, No. 95 (Watercolour and ink, 1955)


Regular Division of the Plane I (Woodcut, 1957)


Tessellation Puzzle Activity located at the back of the exhibition hall


Metamorphosis
Gradual transformation of tessellation from one shape to another.


A section of Metamorphosis II (Woodcut, 1939 - 1940)


Day and Night (Woodcut, 1938)


Hand with Reflecting Sphere (Lithograph, 1935)
Is he holding the glass sphere with his left hand (foreground) or right hand (reflection)?


Commercial Works
Escher's commissioned artworks include postage stamps, concert programme cover and even a icosahedron tin box.




Exploring the Infinity


"Are you sure that a floor can't also be a ceiling?"

Möbius Strip II (Woodcut, 1963) The ants can never fall off the paper as they crawl along an infinite loop.

Ascending and Descending (Lithograph, 1960)
People walking in an endless looping stairs, not actually making progress up/down. Perhaps, this is the depressing reality that sometimes life is as such.


Tetrahedral Planetoid (Woodcut, 1954)


Print Gallery. Left: Lithograph (1956). Right: Digital Print (2003)
Escher left it blank in the center of his art piece (left picture).
It took a team of mathematicians to fill in the blank (right picture).


Escher's final piece of artwork - Snakes (Woodcut, 1969)
The art piece starts with small rings in the center, building up to big rings outward, then back to small rings along the circumference. "...earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust..."


Escher Mania


LP record covers


Comics covers